What does the provider need to do to improve?
- Make sure that teachers who are identified as needing further training participate in this and implement what they have learned in their teaching, especially those teaching level 1 and 2 students. Use the good practice that already exists in the college, such as in visual arts, to help all teachers improve.
- Train teachers, especially those who teach students at levels 2 and 3, to develop the skills necessary to support students with high needs on their courses.
- Increase the attendance rates of 16- to 18-year-old students by investigating why they do not attend their lessons frequently. Use individual strategies to help students who face barriers to attending frequently to overcome these.
- Increase the numbers of 16- to 18-year-old students who take part in meaningful, external work experience placements.
- Improve the proportion of apprentices who achieve their qualifications by making sure that assessors work more closely with employers, and make sure all apprentices complete their learning in the planned timescale.
- Make sure that governors understand fully the performance of the different areas in the college, so they can better support leaders to make improvements more rapidly.
What does the college need to do to improve further?
- Ensure that the teaching of English and mathematics is fully integrated across all curriculum areas in order to improve the outcomes for students on study programmes.
- Through the comprehensive collection and analysis of students’ destinations, evaluate how effectively the provision allows students to achieve their ambitions for further study or employment.
- Through targeted professional development, enable all teachers to plan lessons that address the needs of all students and challenge them to fulfil their potential, regardless of their ability.
What does Northbrook College need to do to improve further?
- Further improve success rates through continued and effective monitoring and early intervention to support even more students to complete their courses successfully.
- Ensure that learning in poorer performing areas is improved by better course organisation, more lively teaching, better use of information and learning technology and a continuing focus on improving the performance of satisfactory teachers.
- Improve the opportunities for all students to experience extra-curricular enrichment activities that invigorate the learning experience and extend their understanding of the world of work.
- Further improve the setting of performance targets for students to ensure that they are specific, realistic and actively engage students to improve and take greater control of their progress.
- Improve the rigour of course reviews to ensure that all targets more accurately reflect current and previous performance and that actions incorporate all of the areas of development identified.
- Further develop the sharing of best practice across, and within, curriculum areas to reduce variability and improve the student experience.
Areas for improvement
The college should address:
- low success rates on level 3 courses for students aged 16 to 18
- the relatively high proportion of satisfactory teaching and the small amount of teaching that remains inadequate
- the use of data to set and monitor challenging targets to improve students’ progress
- increasing cross-college enrichment opportunities for full-time students
- poor quality and outdated accommodation on the Broadwater site
- the promotion of equality and diversity through teaching and the curriculum
- the rigour and consistency of quality improvement procedures across the college
- ensuring the administrative records for safeguarding and staff training are up to date.
Areas for improvement
- low retention rates on full-time courses
- some undemanding teaching.
- low success rates for advanced apprenticeships
- insufficiently challenging targets in students’ progress reviews.
- no full framework achievements for advanced apprentices in electrical installation
- poor target-setting in students’ progress reviews
- inadequate self-assessment report for construction work-based learning.
- ineffective promotion of courses to attract under-represented groups.
What should be improved
- the unsatisfactory teaching and learning in ICT and on level 2 courses
- the pass rates in many areas
- the poor management and performance of learners in work-based learning
- the insufficient use and analysis of management information
- the lack of rigour in the observation of teaching and learning
- the insufficiently critical self-assessment
- the sharing of good practice between curriculum areas and work-based learning
- the inadequate quality assurance arrangements
- the coherence of the strategy for delivering the curriculum across the college.
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